1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hair comb and particularly to a hair comb for removing head lice, nits and/or head lice eggs.
2) Description of the Related Art
Fine toothed hair combs are well known. However, known fine toothed combs, which are preferred for smoothing hair to a desired extent, suffer from the disadvantage that they cannot readily be passed through the hair, particularly if the hair is tangled. It is therefore also well known to provide a comb with a single row of teeth in two portions, a second portion having teeth which are more finely spaced than the first portion. Hair may then be first coarsely combed with the more coarsely spaced portion of teeth and then more finely combed with the portion having more finely spaced teeth.
Such an arrangement is not practical for a finely spaced teeth comb for the removal of lice and nits because such a comb has to be passed through the hair in contact with the scalp along the length of the comb. Because of the curvature of the scalp, this restricts the length of a straight comb. Although, in principle, a nit comb of twice the normal length could be used first with one portion, and then with the another portion, this is inconvenient, and there is no guarantee that the comb would be properly used by an inexperienced user. For example, such a user may seek to use the full length of the comb in each pass through the hair, and thereby not keep the whole length of the comb in contact with the scalp.
A hair comb having two rows of teeth is known from GB-539653-A in which a first row of teeth in coarsely spaced and a second row of teeth is finely spaced so that the first row of teeth coarsely combs the hair before the relatively finely spaced teeth comb the hair. The two rows of teeth of the disclosure are preferably formed with a convex curvature to provide a smoothing action on the hair. The teaching of the disclosure is of teeth of one of the rows being shorter than the teeth of the other row. This facilitates the use of the comb at an acute angle to the scalp. The disclosure in this publication is of tapering teeth. The disclosure is also of a preferred spacing of a first row of teeth being an integer multiple of the spacing of the second row of teeth, so that teeth on the finely spaced row may be aligned with spaces between teeth of the more coarsely spaced row of teeth. It is asserted that with this comb the hair can be coarsely combed with the coarsely spaced teeth and finely combed with the finely combed teeth in one motion through the hair.
Such a comb as disclosed in GB-539653-A has a number of disadvantages for the removal of head lice, nits and eggs. The presence of rows of teeth of different lengths means that the comb cannot effectively be used substantially perpendicular to the scalp, which is the preferred orientation for the removal of head lice and nits. Moreover, the tapering shape of the teeth means that there is a tapering space between the teeth, so that a uniform barrier is not presented to the head lice, nits and eggs. Thus, objects of a given size may be trapped in a narrow portion of the tapering space but pass through a wider portion of the tapering space between teeth. The restriction of the spacing of one row of teeth being an integer multiple of the spacing of the second row of teeth also means that the spacings may not be optimised for the entrapment of large lice and smaller lice, nits and eggs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a comb suitable for the removal of head lice, nits and head lice eggs which at least partially mitigates some of the problems in the prior art.